The official unveiling is tomorrow morning. Here's a repeat with the info from the previous post:

Gillie and Marc Art have recreated the last three Northern White Rhinos – Sudan, Najin, and Fatu – in a 17-foot bronze sculpture to inspire, educate and mobilize the global community to raise their voices and affect real change against illegal rhino poaching trade.

Please join us in unveiling "The Last Three" to create a legacy of the Northern White Rhinos, and save future species from extinction.

Gillie and Marc’s sculpture will be used to raise critical awareness about the plight of the rhinos and ways people can help.

“Our mission is to collect at least 1-million goodbye messages and put them towards a petition for approaching governments about eliminating the demand for rhino horns through education” says Gillie, “You can help by leaving a goodbye message for Sudan before he’s gone forever.”

The sculpture will be here temporarily. (Haven't heard an exact timeframe just yet.) You can read more about the project here.

13 comments:

These are comments I made with the previous story about this sculpture, I am now more certain of my statements.

Sorry to be cynical but the only attention this sculpture will bring is first to the artist and second an army of tourists looking for their next "selfie" high. Why not plant this thing near the UN where the international crowd and get the message and perhaps do something real about it.

Oh less we forget we are the "artsy neighborhood" where corporate art now proliferates and real artists have been pushed out by the real-estate industry and his highness the Mayor. Hope this things gets tagged mercilessly.

The Astor place corporate make-over needs this kind of gimmick to justify the money spent and show the people of the lower east side that this is really "Mid-town South". There is a conservationists and zoning battle going on now to stop the Mayor from extending the fantasy Silicon Alley which is an excuse to add glass and steel towers along Broadway, 4th and 3rd Avenue from 14th Street to Astor place. This is another Trogan horse posing as an art and socially progressive statement.

Agreed with 9:09. No one walking by that thing is going to think: "Gee I feel terrible about Rhino poaching." It's there just like "National Hummus Day" was, to, as 9:09 said, fill that once public, now corporate (and tightly regulated) space with "interesting stuff" to justify what has happened to the neighborhood. I miss the parking lot that used to be there (across the street). At least that was "real".

An effective first step to solving any problem is making an enormous bronze statue of it.

Did you know that there are people in this city with no place to live? I propose that the Village Alliance follow this installation with a giant bronze statue of a homeless person. Awareness must be raised!

Did you know that our aging subway infrastructure is badly in need of repair? I propose that the Village Alliance follow this installation with a giant bronze statue of a track signal. Awareness must be raised!

How's this for awareness. The unrestrained capitalism and avarice that drives fiends to poach the rhino horns can justly apply to the working poor and struggling middle class people of this city that's suffering under the growing affordability crisis and predatory speculative real estate.

This statue's purported value and meaning is just as fraudulent as State St.'s Fearless Girl.

All those comments above show that those people didn't read the purpose of the statue. It wasn't commissioned by the village alliance or NYC. I and others who saw the sculpture yesterday read and commented on the true meaning. It is anti-poaching and making people aware of the near extinction of a species of rhinos. Many people in my hearing and others hearing commented on how sad the situation is.

The sculpture will be going to other parts of the world to raise awareness of the plight of exploited animals.

This is a subspecies that has long been on the brink, and doing a ceremony is pointless as is collecting signatures for it. It is important to use art to raise awareness and have an educational dialogue but spectacles to place a quick irreverent claim to success is Greenwashing. Doing the research and being actually well versed on the sixth mass extinction or wildlife trafficking would have resulted in something more poignant and less media buzz driven. I was hoping this wouldn’t be a stint but from the very description and the lack of real insight into what is transpiring for such iconic megafauna just shows that people can do whatever they please and call it an effort to raise awareness. What is the petition for? Whom is it being sent to? Oh no wait it’s symbolic and demonstration, a public statement. A day after the Capitol Hill demonstration by the students, which was not only poignant but truly inspiring, this is just inappropriate and very poorly thought out.

This sculpture trivializes the rhino.Stacking rhinos like toys - pretty lazy.No, I don't believe the message was intrinsicin slopping it together.The message was probably made up to justify putting it at Astor Place.

While these rhinos will become extinct, the message I got is what will happen to other species if PEOPLE continue to hunt for trophies, destroy habitats such as those of orangutans, etc? Extinction is at least in part caused by cruel people.

How many of the other commentators care about what happens to animals? How many of you hunt, eat meat, abuse animals?

Through the centuries protest and awareness has been made by artists, writers, etc.

Astor Place is an area where many people pass which is a good place to bring the situation to people's attention. Where would you want it to be?

No announcement has been made yet as to where the sculpture will go next.

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